Years ago when I was very, very specialized in coins of Septimius Severus I bought volume III of Roman Imperial Coins in the Hunter Coin Cabinet by Anne S. Robinson, a book detailing about 2000 coins from Pertinax to Aemilian owned by the University of Glasgow. The collection was mostly formed by William Hunter in the 18th century with about 10% added since. About 2/3 of the coins are illustrated in the 88 plates with a note in the text that the others were largely poor or duplicates. I do not remember what I paid for the book but Amazon now has one for $399 which I would not pay under and circumstances. I recall being disappointed in a couple things about the book. The collection included 172 coins of Septimius Severus from Rome. I lists two from Alexandria of which one actually is from Rome and the other is gold. There are ten from Emesa and 17 from Laodicea including a couple definite fakes. There are a few coins I have not seen anywhere else including a legend error from Emesa SPQR OTIMO PRINCIPI. The book listed six coins of Pescennius Niger including one that was clearly a Clodius Albinus as Augustus. One of the Clodius Albinus as Caesar coins was what is now recognized as Alexandria mint which pretty well shows that these were not modern fakes that showed up in the 1990's but just a style that went unrecognized. There are other errors in the book but it was for the most part well done. The Introduction mentions the previously issued two volumes (Augustus-Nerva and Trajan-Commodus) and the then forthcoming volume IV (Valerian-Allectus) which I have never seen (there is also a volume V going to Zeno). The set is ocassionally mentioned or quoted in sales but I find it interesting that CNG has a number of listings "Hunter-" for coins that fall after the time of Aemilian as if they were expecting volumes IV and later to have thee coins. Does anyone else own one or more of these volumes? Do you find them of any use?
CNG has all five volumes. I'd assume that the later empire is just not as well represented in the collection.
I think I may have one of the volumes but am not sure. I know I see them in book sales. Thanks for the background on where the collection came from.
CNG has a lot of good books in the next auction. Be careful or you might buy so many that there is no money left for shallow purchases like more coins.
I had Hunter volumes III, IV, and V. Years ago Volume V (Tetrarchy and later) was one of the best for images of late Roman coins and it had some AE types that made my want list. Volume IV also covered the late third century with photos better than other books. BMC did not cover coins that late and RIC, which does cover late Roman coins, had only a limited number of coins photographed. I like the idea of seeing a collection, as opposed to just whatever is on the market at the time, but now, photographs of coins are everywhere and having a print book with little text is not as useful as it once was. So, I sold them I contrast Roman coin books with only photos to books with commentary as well. For example, "Catalogue of Late Roman Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection from Arcadius and Honorius to the Accession of Anastasius" has 344 pages of discussion and 29 pages of indices to go along with the 955 illustrated coins. If you like that time period, that is a book worth having. No amount of looking on the web can tell you one-fifth of what that book lays out clearly. I remark that serious collectors of Greek coins can benefit from far more reference works than collectors of Roman coins. Roman coins are easily organized in RIC. The series "Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum" (SNG) has volumes with illustrations of the coins in outstanding collections of valuable Greek coins, but almost no commentary. It may take many SNG volumes to find a reference for any given Greek coin type. However, there are still very useful because with SNG's you can see what types exist in a way that cannot be done with only the web.
Before the Internet we had thousands of books and catalogs with coins we wanted to see but the problem was finding them. Today we have thousands of coins that have sold recently that are easy to find with search capabilities and the generosity of auction houses willing to give the world the gift of their photo files. What we need for the future is the digitization of all pre-Internet images including the old references like SNG and auction catalogs from firms no longer in business with no one left to sell/give away their 'intellectual property'. Copyright laws are crafted to protect Mickey Mouse from becoming part of the popular culture without Disney getting rich. Perhaps someday laws will change making it possible to find the images I have in my attic (there are few catalogs there) without my spending a month flipping through to find the one that fits.
We CAN see what types exist for particular rulers and regions on the web - Wildwinds. Granted the database is tiny compared to the number of coins in catalogs, but if we all make an effort and contribute regularly, it will continue to grow and hopefully someday be as extensive as the SNG's.
Well, this thread did one thing for me. It advised me that I completely missed the last CNG auction! It's happened many times. Especially for those that close on a weekend. I would have won many lots, some of which I had on my list for years. Although this one was not on the auction, does anyone have a nice Syracuse Philistis Tetradrachm for sale or trade?
While I really appreciate Dane's efforts taking over Wildwinds, I am nowhere near as impressed with it as some. The original idea recorded sales as presented places like eBay and many of the photos and information details show it. Corrections have been made when discovered but there are many that should be improved. Several of our members here have submitted coins not previously listed but there are still more things missing than present. Worse, to me, is the lack of depth of variations compared to looking at, for example, every example of a coin that has been sold by CNG since 1987. I would love to see all the coins sold by NFA added to a searchable database. I have the catalogs but I so wish they were indexed.
I agree. I find all of the internet search listings having multiple failings. I go to Wildwinds and find misattributions fairly commonly. The only reason I happen to find them is if I own the book they are attributing from. There is a LOT to be said of editorial control, and that is what the internet lacks. If a dealer sells a certain coin as BMC 126, then it doesn't appear that anyone looks up BMC 126 and make sure the dealer was correct. This fact, plus what Valentinian talked about, is why I like books. Many/most were written by serious numismatists, men and women I would trust their word over most dealers. Then, this writing went through an editorial control process, and was usually also read by other noted numismatists, so most errors were caught before publication. Therefor, I simply TRUST this information more than most information on the web.
